Uganda’s opposition leader has participated in Presidential elections four times in a bid to take power.
In 2006 after losing for the second time in a bloody political contest, Col Kizza Besigye who stood on FDC flag petitioned Supreme Court citing multiple irregularities.
In its judgement, Besigye lost although Court acknowledged there were a few incidents where rigging took place but couldn’t tantamount to a re-run.
The FDC kingpin would contest in the election organised by the same Electoral Body four years later under the supervision of Eng. Badru Kiggundu.
After suffering the third loss in a row, Kizza Besigye pronounced himself that he would never go back to Court but would rather approach the ‘people’s court’ which catapulted into a series of bloody protests across the country.
Besigye at some point in 2012 announced he would never participate in an election organised by Museveni and Kiggundu.
He would later overturn his decision to contest in 2016, which he again lost.
On Thursday while making highlights on Bugiri Municipality election, Besigye took time off to explain why opposition can’t win elections in Uganda and subsequently take power.
Opposition figure Col Dr Kizza Besigye on Thursday explained why he has continued to actively engage in elections organized by the National Resistance Movement (NRM) government, having sworn not to, a few years ago.
Besigye told reporters in Kampala today that he and his team don’t go into elections for the mere purpose of winning, but to exploit a loophole created by the regime.
“We are ruled by a military junta,” he said. “The elections are organized by the junta. The election can’t be free or fair. When we go there we are not competing against other political parties. We are competing against the state; the police, the Electoral Commission, the intelligence agencies, the RDC etc,” Besigye said.
“When the (NRM) organizes an election; it is seeking to legitimise itself; but in the process, it creates us a rare opportunity to talk to the people without teargas. So we use it enthusiastically, to empower people with information so that people know their situation and what they have to do to get out of it”
“We go there to organize. Only organized people can struggle and free themselves. In these electioneering activities people are empowered to organize; that is the backgrounds of our participation in elections,” he added.
He said that FDC is ready to be involved in LC1 elections which he termed as very important, “the people at the grass roots are very important. These are the people who steal the votes; these are the regime spies.”
Kizza Besigye reeling from the party’s electoral triumph in the Rukungiri Woman MP race sounded confident about the party’s success at major elections.
